7/31/2015 – Friday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – St Ignatius of Loyola – Matthew 13:54-58

     The 16^th century was a tumultuous time in the history of the Church – the era of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic response to the Reformation, and the Spanish Inquisition.  It was the time when the explorers and conquistadors were exploring the Americas, accompanied by many priests and Catholic missionaries who founded many Catholic missions.  The list of saints to come out of the country of Spain in this era is impressive as well:  Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis Xavier, John of Avila, John of God, and Juan de Ribera.  Three of these saints are included on the list of the 36 doctors of the Church - quite an impressive showing.

     Today we celebrate one of these Spanish saints – Ignatius of Loyola. Even though Ignatius has not yet been named a Doctor of the Church, his influence in his own day and today is remarkable and wide-spread.  Ignatius was a knight and a nobleman from the Basque country in Spain when he was bedridden with an injury.  He read some books of the lives of the saints while convalescing, from which he felt a call to search for God in his life, a life in which God and the Catholic Church previously had not been very important. Ignatius visited the shire of Our Lady of Montserrat in Catalonia in Spain as a part of this spiritual quest.  He placed his sword in front of the statue of the Blessed Mother there at Montserrat – he knew that he was giving up his life as a soldier for the state and instead was dedicating his life to being a solider for God.  His observations and reflections about his search for God became the basis of his spiritual exercises. Ignatius went on to become a priest and the founder of the Society of Jesus.  The Jesuits continue to be a great influence in our world today.  The spirit of Ignatius lives on in so many ways, including in the bold messages from our first Jesuit pope, Pope Francis. As we hear about Jesus being questioned and doubted in his preaching in his hometown synagogue, we can imagine that Ignatius was also met with doubts and incredulity when he changed his life and starting preaching the Gospel to others.   Even though the Jesuits were officially approved by the Church under Pope Paul III in 1540, even though they were instrumental in setting up the missions in the Americas in the 16^th century, many modern Catholics forget how the Jesuits were dissolved as a Catholic religious congregation by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, and remained dissolved until 1814.  Sometimes the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus has a very rocky reception and a very difficult path with a lot of twists and turns.  Yet, we trust in the Lord and we never give up.  May Ignatius of Loyola and his witness to the Gospel inspire us to be modern evangelizers of Christ’s Good News in the world. 

7/31/2013 – Wednesday of 17th week of Ordinary Time – St Ignatius of Loyola – Matthew 13:44-46

        The Kingdom of God is a wonderful treasure worth more than we can ever imagine.  It is like a gem of such wonder and glory that we would give up everything else in order to acquire it.  Yet, do we place our values in the pleasures of the world and give up the values of the Kingdom in the process?

         We look at a man like St Ignatius of Loyola, who was a soldier, who enjoyed worldly pleasures like fancy clothing, many women, and many of the vanities of the world.  Yet, after an injury and after a period of convalescence, he read a book about the saints and had a very profound conversion experience.  At the age of 30, he went on a pilgrimage and lived as a hermit in a cave for a while.  He went through a long period of searching and longing.  He asked himself the same questions that he wrote in his spiritual exercises that are still asked by many believers today: What have I done for Christ?  What am I doing for Christ?  What ought I do for Christ?   Ignatius spent time studying Latin and theology, he was even jailed a couple of times during the Spanish Inquisition for his passion and eccentricities.  We know how Ignatius persevered and founded the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits.  Our own Pope Francis is a member of that religious congregation.  Ignatius found a treasure that was far beyond the worldly treasure that he pursued in his youth and young adulthood.  The Jesuits were suppressed throughout the world from 1773 to 1814 in all places throughout the world in all places besides Prussia and Russia.  Yet, the Jesuits remain the largest religious order of priests and brothers in the world today. 

         What worldly treasures are we pursuing in our lives, and are we pursuing those treasure rather than those of God’s Kingdom. 

7/31/2012 – Tuesday of 17th week in ordinary time – St Ignatius of Loyola – Jeremiah 14: 17 – 22

          The people of Israel are suffering, yet they are not afraid to ask God why.  They ask God: Have you cast Judah off?  Is Zion loathsome to you?  The people are willing to acknowledge the sins of their fathers and their own sins that they’ve committed against God.  They ask God to remember the covenant that he made with them, to forgive them in honor of his own name.

         We live in a society where so many people are not willing to acknowledge the wrongs that they have done.  It is so much easier to blame the system, to blame someone else, to sue someone, to not take responsibility.  The people were confronting God in the midst of suffering from a great draught.  I wonder if some of the farmers in the Midwest who are losing all of their crops this summer cry out to God in the same way. 

         Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast day we celebrate today, confronted God in this same spirit of honesty.  He was a wounded soldier recuperating in bed when he got the call from the Lord to serve him.  After a conversion of heart and time spent in the wilderness, Ignatius spent time in the seminary at the University of Paris, where he got the idea to start a new order, the Jesuits, which is actually the largest religious order of priests in the world today.  Leaving behind the life of a solider was not easy for him – it meant confronting his demons and the way of life he followed.  Yet, Ignatius stands as a witness today of someone who was able to confront God with great honesty and candor.  May we have the courage to do the same.